Oh yeah~ It’s time for Geminids meteor shower. The show peaks on 13-14 Dec 2008. The rate of the meteor, ZHR (Zenithal Hourly Rate) is supposed to be 100 meteors/hour but the biggest moon spoilt the show and reduce the rate to around 20/hour. However, from my experience, last Geminids performed very well with a large number of fireballs which were so bright that the moon and artificial light didn’t affect at all.
How to look? Good question asked! Just make use of your bared eyes will do. Meteor is too fast for telescope to catch. Someone please prove me wrong~ ![]()
When to look? Basically, you can catch the most meteors just before dusk. This law still applies but you may unexpectedly catch more earlier that time. So, when the sky turns dark, it’s time to look.
Where to look? Excellent question, indeed! This is a tough question for me to answer as I found both ways work for me. One is to look away the radiant and another is to look to the radiant. Radiant is the point where all the meteors “come” from. It’s an artificial point as meteors don’t really come from there. For geminids, the radiant lies very near to Castor, a star belongs to the constellation Gemini. Gemini nears to the constellation Orion. Orion is well known of its belt composed of 3 stars at a line.
Too technically speaking? Okay, find a place without many obstacles that block your view and lay down on a mat or enjoy yourself on a lounge chair. Head up and dressed well!
Local advice: The radiant point is highest around 3 a.m. in Kluang, Johor, Malaysia. It won’t be much different nationwide.

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